Cultures of Neuroscience (EAS3239)

30 credits

From neuroethics to neuromarketing, the brain and its functioning has come to dominate how contemporary western cultures conceptualise personhood. This interdisciplinary module explores the scientific and cultural movement from psychological models of selfhood to the relatively recent idea of a ‘neurochemical self’ by examining cultural representations of the ‘cerebral subject’ in novels, film, poetry, (auto)biography, works of popular science, philosophy, and critical theory. On the course, we will examine and critique the models underpinning neuroscientific ideas of personhood, asking how they might both challenge and consolidate cultural assumptions about the self.